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New scoring might help Gators win

Rally scoring, which should level the playing field for women's volleyball, puts emphasis on serving and ball control.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 31, 2001

GAINESVILLE -- Under ordinary circumstances, Florida volleyball coach Mary Wise would know exactly what to expect from her team this season.

This year is not ordinary by any means.

For the first time, rally scoring will be used for every game instead of only the fifth in an attempt to level the playing field in the women's collegiate game.

"If this team was playing sideout scoring, I would really like our chances," said Wise, who begins her 11th season at Florida. "But there's the unknown of the rally scoring. ...

"One could argue that this is the most athletic team we've had. We've got all sorts of players who can jump above the top of the rim of a basketball hoop. If we can control the ball and control the first half with digs, we have a chance to outquick a lot of teams. That's what we'll try and do. We may be as good a defensive team as we've had at Florida."

The Gators open the season with three matches in two days in the SunTrust Invitational at the O'Connell Center. Florida plays Marshall at 2 p.m. today, South Florida at 7:30 tonight and Arizona at 4:40 p.m. Saturday.

Florida opens the season much stronger than last year, when it started six players with no experience at their positions.

"We're just really excited because we have a lot of players back this year," senior outside hitter Niki Hartley said. "Last year this time, we were playing in a tournament and no one on the court had played the position they were in. This year everyone is coming back with a little bit more knowledge. We're a lot older, a lot more experienced. We're a lot more confident."

With five starters returning, Florida hopes to build on last season's 29-5 record and NCAA region semifinal berth.

"This year it's so much different than it was this time last year," junior middle blocker Nicole McCray said. "A lot of us stayed the summer and trained and played with each other, which helped a lot of us to get more comfortable with each other. This year, we're just more in tune with each other."

The Gators traveled to Lincoln in the spring to play defending national champion Nebraska to find out how they needed to improve. Nebraska won four out of five games, but Wise discovered a few things: The Gators could block, kill and serve aces against the nation's best. But they didn't control the unforced errors.

"That has been our theme (since then)," Wise said. "What we're trying to do is eliminate the unforced errors. In rally scoring you've got to be low-error."

Wise calls rally scoring "the great equalizer." Rally scoring allows a team to score a point whether serving or receiving. Previously, only the team serving could earn a point in the first four games. Wise said the new rules mean one or two strong hitters can no longer dominate a match and will put a premium on strong serving and avoiding unforced errors.

"I think it's good for our game," she said. "I think if you look at women's volleyball and see how few teams have won the national championship, if men's basketball was the exact same Final Four every year, I don't know how much interest you could build across the country. I think that's one of the benefits, we hope, from rally scoring. It's going to be hard for any team in any league to run the table, to go undefeated. It's too close now."

If that applies to the Gators, they might have a tougher time dominating their conference. They hold an 84-match regular-season winning streak and have won 10 SEC championships.

If rally scoring does make the playing field more level, the question is, what are the Gators' chances of being among the nation's top teams?

"If this team can serve and block at an elite level, this team has a chance to be very, very good," Wise said. "I know we can play defense, I know we can pass, we can swing for kills. The X-factor is, can this team serve and block against the elite-level teams?"

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